Re dating in FttLP: ALSO consider the hilarity of Tsume teasing Shikako about Kiba making a good boyfriend and Shikamaru hearing. (Though I do think that as they age they would be able to shield their thoughts when they want to be separate, otherwise it would be functionally no different to a hive mind situation. Also, not all missions would need a twin at home for updated orders, so if nothing was going on, twins could still get assigned the same missions, surely).

Yeah, they can’t be hive mind otherwise that’d be no fun. I quite like the idea that even though the twins both “hear” the same thing, they react differently. So Tsume telling Shikako that Kiba would make a good boyfriend would cause confusion in ever-oblivious Shikako, whereas Shikamaru would hold a heretofore unseen grudge against Kiba for a while.

I suppose for the short term “find the ferret” mission, both twins being sent would make sense–they can cover a larger area faster and with instantaneous communication–and would be a good first command mission for new chuunin!Shikamaru and Naruto (although, given the bond, would that have pushed Shikako’s almost promotion due to strategizing into an actual promotion?) So that covers the Gelel arc.

But I don’t see why they would both be assigned to the longer-term semi-diplomatic mission to Land of Moon… Or, rather, that they would both be assigned, but only one of them would physically go while the other stays behind to act as Intel handler.